Speech recognition dictionary creation apparatus and information search apparatus

ABSTRACT

A program guidance apparatus comprises a recognition word storage unit ( 105 ) operable to store a past recognition word that is recognized by speech recognition in the past, a viewing history word storage unit ( 106 ) operable to store viewing history words that are the information of a viewed program and a dictionary creating unit ( 103 ) operable to create a customized recognition dictionary that is created by adding the past recognition word and viewing history words that are not included in the basic recognition dictionary to the basic recognition dictionary and another customized recognition dictionary to which weights are assigned using “item weight coefficient” according to the categories of words and “history weight coefficient” according to whether or not the word is recorded as a past recognition word or viewing history words.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] (1) Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention relates to a speech recognition dictionarycreation apparatus for creating a speech recognition dictionary thatenables an information search apparatus such as a program guidanceapparatus to perform speech recognition and the information searchapparatus.

[0003] (2) Description of the Related Art

[0004] Recently, a conventional program guidance apparatus whichincludes a speech recognition dictionary creation apparatus has come inuse with the increase in the number of program channels, and theconventional program guidance apparatus is for operating TV using anElectronic Program guide (EPG) and speech, receiving latest EPG data,creating a speech recognition dictionary corresponding to a program tobe broadcast today or on a later date, and then deleting an oldrecognition dictionary so as not to use any extra hard resources.

[0005] Further, at the time of creating a dictionary, it classifies eachof words into a certain category such as “program name”, “genre”, and“cast” in the EPG so as to register them in the dictionary andrecognizes each of the words equally.

[0006]FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the structure of the programguidance apparatus that has a conventional speech recognition dictionarycreation apparatus.

[0007] The program guidance apparatus comprises an EPG receiving unit701, an item classifying unit 702, a dictionary updating unit 703, adictionary 704, a speech recognition unit 705, a clock 706, a registeredword deleting unit 707, an EPG storage unit 708 and a control unit 709.

[0008] The EPG receiving unit 701 demultiplexes EPG data from a TVsignal. The item classifying unit 702 demultiplexes EPG data such as“broadcasting time” that does not need for speech recognition andclassifies the residual EPG data into a category such as “program title”and “cast”. The dictionary updating unit 703 registers words included inthe EPG data in a dictionary without duplication. The dictionary 704records the words necessary for speech recognition along with itsregistration date and time. The speech recognition unit 705 refers tothe dictionary 704 based on a speech signal by user speech andrecognizes the specific words.

[0009] Also, the clock 706 outputs the present date and time to theregistered word deleting unit 707. The registered word deleting unit 707refers to the date and time of the clock 706 and deletes, for example,the words registered up to the previous day in all the words registeredin the dictionary 704. The EPG storage unit 708 stores the EPG datademultiplexed in the EPG receiving unit 701. The control unit 709searches the EPG data stored in the EPG storage unit 708 for the wordsrecognized by the speech recognition unit 705 and outputs thecorresponding program contents (for example, refer to FIG. 1 in page 7of the Japanese Laid-Open Patent application No. 2001-22374).

[0010] The contents of recognition words in a dictionary changes becausethe conventional program guidance apparatus mentioned above creates adictionary using latest EPG data, but its user rarely pays attention tothe change.

[0011] Here, for example, in the case where a user performs a TV programsearch or TV operation using a program name that has been viewed by theuser and has interested the user or a cast name that is not included inthe latest EPG data, the program guidance apparatus outputs a word thathas the highest recognition score in the dictionary as the recognitionresult. This is because any word that is not registered in thedictionary cannot be recognized. Therefore, the outputted recognitionresult may differ from the program name or the cast name that isexpected by the user. In this case, the user is to think that thisrecognition result is an error and say the same words repeatedly.

[0012] Therefore, it is conceivable to use not only the latest EPG databut also past EPG data in creating a dictionary, but in this case, alarge number of words must be registered in the dictionary.

[0013] Also, with the increase in the number of program channels, thenumber of the recognition words also increases. However, there is aproblem that its recognition rate is decreasing because the conventionalspeech recognition dictionary creation apparatus searches only new dataas words to be recognized.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0014] Therefore, the present invention is conceived considering theabove-mentioned situation, and an object of the present invention is toprovide a speech recognition dictionary creation apparatus and aninformation search apparatus that are capable of improving therecognition rate, minimizing the increase in the number of words to berecognized.

[0015] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the speechrecognition dictionary creation apparatus, of the present invention, forcreating recognition dictionaries that are used for speech recognitioncomprising a dictionary creating unit operable to create a plurality ofrecognition dictionaries with different contents depending onpresence/absence of user experience.

[0016] Here, the presence/absence of user experience is concerningpresence/absence of viewing, and the dictionary creating unit may createthe plurality of recognition dictionaries based on the presence/absenceof the viewing.

[0017] Also, the presence/absence of user experience is concerningpresence/absence of using, and the dictionary creating unit may createthe plurality of recognition dictionaries based on the presence/absenceof the using.

[0018] Also, the presence/absence of user experience is concerningpresence/absence of visiting, and the dictionary creating unit maycreate the plurality of recognition dictionaries based on thepresence/absence of the visiting.

[0019] In this way, a plurality of recognition dictionaries are createdbased on whether a user has already viewed the program or not, to bemore specific, whether the user searches a program to be broadcast inthe future or the user searches the program that the user has alreadyviewed (or recorded) before. Therefore, it is possible to createrecognition dictionaries with an improved speech recognition rateaccording to the purpose.

[0020] Also, the speech recognition dictionary creation apparatusfurther comprises: an action history word obtaining unit operable toobtain an action history word to be recognized based on an action of auser; an action history word storage unit operable to store the obtainedaction history word; a fixed word storage unit operable to store fixedwords to be set previously; a word extracting unit operable to extractnew recognition words to be recognized from inputted data; and adictionary storage unit operable to store the plurality of createdrecognition dictionaries, wherein the dictionary creating unit maycreate one of the plurality of recognition dictionaries by selecting newregistration words from the new recognition words, the fixed words andthe action history word, registering the new registration words in therecognition dictionary and adding, to the new registration words,information indicating pronunciations and parts of speech of the newregistration words.

[0021] Registering an action history word that is not included in theinputted data in this way makes it possible to create a recognitiondictionary capable of avoiding an error of speech recognition.

[0022] Also, the speech recognition dictionary creation apparatusfurther comprises: a recognition word obtaining unit operable to obtaina past recognition word that was recognized by speech recognition; and apast recognition word storage unit operable to store the pastrecognition word, wherein the dictionary creating unit may create one ofthe plurality of recognition dictionaries by selecting new registrationwords from the new recognition words, the fixed words, the actionhistory word and the past recognition word, registering the newregistration words in the recognition dictionary and adding, to the newregistration words, information indicating pronunciations and parts ofspeech of the new registration words.

[0023] Registering a past recognition word that is not included in theinputted data in this way makes it possible to create a recognitiondictionary capable of avoiding an error of speech recognition.

[0024] In this way, registering only the word of an action history wordor a past recognition word in addition to new words instead of all thewords that are included in a certain time period in the past as thewords to be recognized makes it possible to minimize the increase in thenumber of words to be recognized, minimize the deterioration of thespeech recognition rate and to realize a speech recognition dictionarythat requires fewer hard resources.

[0025] Also, the dictionary creating unit may create the recognitiondictionary by assigning weights to each of the new registration wordsbased on whether or not the words are included in the action historyword and adding, to the new registration words, information concerningthe assigned weights.

[0026] In this way, assigning weights to each of the new registrationwords based on whether each word is the word included in the actionhistory word or not enables creating a recognition dictionary with animproved speech recognition rate.

[0027] Also, the dictionary creating unit may create the recognitiondictionary by assigning weights to each of the new registration wordsbased on whether or not the words are included in the past recognitionword and adding, to the new registration words, information concerningthe assigned weights.

[0028] In this way, assigning weights to each of the new registrationwords based on whether each word is the word included in the pastrecognition word or not enables creating a recognition dictionary withan improved speech recognition rate.

[0029] Also, the data to be inputted is structured data, the wordextracting unit extracts attributes of the new recognition wordstogether with the new recognition words, and the dictionary creatingunit may create the recognition dictionary by assigning weights to eachof the new registration words based on the attributes of the newrecognition words and adding, to the new registration words, informationconcerning the assigned weights.

[0030] In this way, assigning weights to each of the new registrationwords based on the attribute of each new recognition word enablescreating a recognition dictionary with an improved speech recognitionrate.

[0031] Also, the speech recognition dictionary creation apparatusfurther comprises a user information obtaining unit operable to obtainuser recognition information for identifying the user, wherein thedictionary creating unit may create the recognition dictionary for eachpiece of the user recognition information.

[0032] Also, the speech recognition dictionary creation apparatusfurther comprises a user information obtaining unit operable to obtainuser recognition information for identifying a user, wherein thedictionary creating unit may create the recognition dictionary byassigning weights to each of the new registration words for each pieceof the user recognition information.

[0033] In this way, it becomes possible to create a recognitiondictionary customized for a plurality of users.

[0034] Also, the action history word obtaining unit records action dateand time together with the action history word in the action historyword storage unit, the dictionary creating unit may create therecognition dictionary by further adding the action date and time tosome of new registration words, these new registration words beingselected from the action history word, and the speech recognitiondictionary creation apparatus further comprises a word deleting unitoperable to delete, from the recognition dictionary, the registrationwords which have been stored for a predetermined time period startingfrom the action date and time of the registration words.

[0035] In this way, using a recognition dictionary with words that arenot included in the data to be inputted makes it possible to reduce thenumber of hard resources of the speech recognition dictionary creationapparatus because speech recognition errors are reduced and further,each registered word is automatically deleted from the recognitiondictionary after a predetermined time period passes.

[0036] Also, the information search apparatus, of the present invention,for creating recognition dictionaries that are used for speechrecognition and searching information using a speech signal based onspeech of a user, comprises: a dictionary creating unit operable tocreate a plurality of recognition dictionaries depending with differentcontents on presence/absence of user experience; a speech recognitionunit operable to recognize a specific word from the speech signal byreferring to one of the recognition dictionaries; a data storage unitoperable to store data to be inputted; and a control unit operable tosearch the data for a word that is recognized by the speech recognitionunit and output corresponding information.

[0037] Also, the information search apparatus further comprises: anaction history word obtaining unit operable to obtain an action historyword to be recognized based on an action of a user; an action historyword storage unit operable to store the obtained action history word; afixed word storage unit operable to store fixed words to be setpreviously; a word extracting unit operable to extract new recognitionwords to be recognized from data to be inputted; and a dictionarystorage unit operable to store the created recognition dictionary,wherein the dictionary creating unit may create the recognitiondictionary by selecting new registration words from the new recognitionwords, the fixed words and the action history word, registering the newregistration words in the recognition dictionary and adding, to the newregistration words, information indicating pronunciations and parts ofspeech of the new registration words.

[0038] In this way, using a recognition dictionary with words that arenot included in the data to be inputted makes it possible to reducespeech recognition errors, recognize the presence/absence of the searchdata and judges whether there is any speech recognition error or not.

[0039] For example, any word can be recognized right when using aninformation search apparatus as a program guidance apparatus of a TVbroadcasting program even in the case of saying a past viewed programname that is not included in the latest EPG data. In this way, providedthat a user performs a program search, a response such as “no programwhere celebrity C appears is being broadcast now and will be broadcastwithin a week” and “movie K is not now being broadcast” can be made, andthus a user-friendly speech interface can be realized.

[0040] Also, the data to be inputted is structured data, the wordextracting unit extracts attributes of the new recognition wordstogether with the new recognition words, and the dictionary creatingunit may create the recognition dictionary by assigning weights to eachof the new registration words based on the attributes of the newrecognition words and adding, to the new registration words, informationconcerning the assigned weights and creates the plurality of recognitiondictionaries with different weights for the new registration wordsdepending on purposes, these weights being determined based onattributes of the new recognition words, the information searchapparatus further comprises a dictionary selection accepting unitoperable to accept a dictionary to be selected by a user from theplurality of recognition dictionaries that are stored in the dictionarystorage unit, wherein the speech recognition unit recognizes a specificword obtained from a speech signal based on speech of a user byreferring to the recognition dictionary accepted by the dictionaryselection accepting unit.

[0041] In this way, a user who thinks that his or her apparatus has alow speech recognition rate selects an optimum dictionary in a pluralityof dictionaries makes it possible to improve the speech recognition rateand realize a user-friendly interface.

[0042] Further, the present invention can be realized as a methodcomprising characteristic steps that corresponds to the units includedin this speech recognition dictionary creation apparatus or as a programcausing a computer to execute these steps. Also, it is needless to saythat this program can be distributed via a recording medium such as aCD-ROM or a communication medium such as the Internet.

[0043] Up to this point, with this speech recognition dictionarycreation apparatus of the present invention can recognize words that arenot included in the latest EPG data as the words to be recognized,detect a speech recognition error and presence or absence of the searchdata, and realize a user-friendly speech interface.

[0044] Further, it is possible to create a plurality of recognitiondictionaries and enable a user to switch them, in other words, a userwho thinks that his or her apparatus has a low speech recognition ratecan select an optimum dictionary in a plurality of dictionaries makes itpossible to improve the speech recognition rate and realize auser-friendly interface.

FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT TECHNICAL BACKGROUND TO THIS APPLICATION

[0045] Japanese Patent application No. 2003-068049, filed on Mar. 13,2003, is incorporated herein by reference.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0046] These and other subjects, advantages and features of theinvention will become apparent from the following description thereoftaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings that illustrate aspecific embodiment of the invention. In the Drawings:

[0047]FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the structure of a programguidance apparatus including a conventional speech recognitiondictionary creation apparatus;

[0048]FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of a programguidance apparatus including a speech recognition dictionary creationapparatus concerning the first embodiment of the present invention;

[0049]FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data example stored in a recognitionword storage unit;

[0050]FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data example stored in a viewinghistory word storage unit;

[0051]FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the data example of a basicrecognition dictionary;

[0052]FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the data example of a customizeddictionary;

[0053]FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a research result on how many timesthe category of a word is said under each speech condition;

[0054]FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the data example of a customizeddictionary with weights;

[0055]FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the operation of an off-lineprocessing performed by the program guidance apparatus;

[0056]FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the EPG data.

[0057]FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing the operation of an off-lineprocessing performed by the program guidance apparatus;

[0058]FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen forselecting a recognition dictionary in a plurality of recognitiondictionaries;

[0059]FIG. 13A is a diagram of extract of a customized dictionary withweights shown in FIG. 8 and FIG. 13B is a diagram showing an example ofa recognition result;

[0060]FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a data example of a customizeddictionary on which words whose category is a “program name” is notregistered;

[0061]FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing the structure of a programguidance apparatus including a speech recognition dictionary creationapparatus concerning the second embodiment of the present invention;

[0062]FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a data example stored in a recordinginformation storage unit;

[0063]FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a data example of a customizedrecognition dictionary with weights shown in the second embodiment;

[0064]FIG. 18 is a flow chart showing the operation of an off-lineprocessing performed by the program guidance apparatus shown in thesecond embodiment;

[0065]FIG. 19 is a block diagram showing the structure of the programguidance apparatus including the speech recognition dictionary creationapparatus concerning the third embodiment of the present invention;

[0066]FIG. 20 is a flow chart showing the operation of an off-lineprocessing performed by the program guidance apparatus shown in thethird embodiment;

[0067]FIG. 21 is a block diagram showing the structure of a musicguidance apparatus including a speech recognition dictionary creationapparatus concerning the fourth embodiment of the present invention;

[0068]FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a data example of music informationstored in a music data/music information/listening history storage unit;

[0069]FIG. 23 is a diagram showing a data example of listening historystored in the music data/music information/listening history storageunit;

[0070]FIG. 24 is a diagram showing an example of an “item weightcoefficient” for each category in the fourth embodiment;

[0071]FIG. 25 is a block diagram showing the structure of theinformation search apparatus including the speech recognition dictionarycreation apparatus concerning the fifth embodiment of the presentinvention;

[0072]FIG. 26 is a diagram showing a data example stored in therestaurant data storage unit;

[0073]FIG. 27 is a diagram showing a data example stored in the useinformation storage unit; and

[0074]FIG. 28 is a diagram showing an example of an “item weightcoefficient” for each category in the fifth embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S) First Embodiment

[0075] In this first embodiment, a case where a user creates arecognition dictionary for searching a program to be broadcast in thefuture and actually searches the program will be mainly explained.

[0076]FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of the programguidance including the speech recognition dictionary creation apparatusconcerning the first embodiment of the present invention.

[0077] The program guidance apparatus comprises an EPG receiving unit101, a word extracting unit 102, a dictionary creating unit 103, a fixedword storage unit 104, a recognition word storage unit 105, a viewinghistory word storage unit 106, a dictionary storage unit 107, adictionary selecting unit 108, a speech recognition unit 109, an EPGstorage unit 110, a clock 111 and a control unit 112.

[0078] The EPG receiving unit 101 demultiplexes the EPG data from theinputted TV signal. The word extracting unit 102 extracts a newrecognition word such as “program title”, “cast” and “genre” that is aword to be recognized from the EPG data. In the fixed word storage unit104, words indicating time, broadcasting station or the like and fixedwords such as “

”, “6

”, “

”, “

”, “

”, “

” that are necessary for normal speech recognition are stored.

[0079] The recognition word storage unit 105 is a storage unit operableto store a past recognition word that is the word recognized by thespeech recognition in the past. As shown in FIG. 3 for example, fivekinds of data that comprise “characters” of each word used for speechrecognition, “pronunciation” of each word, “category” indicating thateach word is classified into one of categories such as program name,genre, cast or the like, “speech recognition date and time” of each wordand “frequency” indicating how many times each word has been recognizedso far. In the case where the same word is recognized, its “speechrecognition date and time” is updated to the latest date and time andits “frequency” is incremented by one.

[0080] The viewing history word storage unit 106 is a storage unitoperable to store viewing history words that are the information of theviewed program. Here, its program name and the cast are recorded as theinformation of the viewed program and, as shown in FIG. 4 for example,its “characters”, “viewing date and time” of the program, its “category”and its “frequency” are recorded. In the case where the same words arerecorded, its “viewing date and time” is updated to the latest date andtime and its “frequency” is incremented by one.

[0081] The dictionary creating unit 103 creates a basic recognitiondictionary, as shown in FIG. 5 for example, by adding information suchas pronunciations and parts of speech that are necessary for speechrecognition to new recognition words extracted by the word extractingunit 102 and fixed words stored in the fixed word storage unit 104 inthe same way of creating a conventional speech recognition dictionary.Also, the dictionary creating unit 103 creates a customized recognitiondictionary, as shown in FIG. 6 for example, by referring to the pastrecognition word stored in the recognition word storage unit 105 andviewing history words stored in the viewing history word storage unit106, and in the case where there is any new word other than the wordsthat have already been registered in the basic recognition dictionary,by adding the new words in the basic recognition dictionary as one ofthe registered words.

[0082] By the way, as to how many times the category (attribute) of aword is said, in other words “frequency”, for enabling a user to searchthe word using the program guidance apparatus differs depending on whichspeech condition is employed, the speech condition 1 being employed whena user searches a program to be broadcast in the future, while thespeech condition 2 being employed when a user searches a program whichhas been viewed or recorded before.

[0083]FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the result of searching how many timesthe category of a word is said under each of the speech conditions. Asshown in FIG. 7, “genre” (44.8%) is the most frequent and “programcontents” (9.5%) is the second most frequent in the case of speechcondition 1 except “date and time”, while “program name” (26.7%) is themost frequent and “genre” (23.3%) is the second most frequent in thecase of speech condition 2.

[0084] The dictionary creating unit 103 determines an “item weightcoefficient” by assigning a weight to each key word according to thecategory of the word with this reason.

[0085] Further, the dictionary creating unit 103 determines a “historyweight coefficient” by assigning a weight to each key word depending onwhich case—the case where the word is stored in the recognition wordstorage unit 105 as a past recognition word and the case where the wordis stored in the viewing history word storage unit 106 as a viewinghistory word—is employed so as to store the word. After that, thedictionary creating unit 103, as shown in FIG. 8 for example, creates acustomized recognition dictionary with weights where “item weightcoefficient” and “history weight coefficient” in addition to“characters”, “pronunciation” and “category” are stored.

[0086] Here, “item weight coefficients” are given in the following way:“1.11” to a word whose category is “program name”; “1.27” to a wordwhose category is “date and time”; “1.06” to a word whose category is“broadcasting station/a channel”; and “1.49” to a word whose category is“genre” and “1.07” to a word whose category is “cast”.

[0087] Also, “history weight coefficients” are given in the followingway: “1.2” to a word stored in the recognition word storage unit 105 asa past recognition word; “1.1” to a word stored in the viewing historyword storage unit 106 as a viewing history word and “1.3” to a wordstored both in the recognition word storage unit 105 and the viewinghistory word storage unit 106.

[0088] The dictionary storage unit 107 is a storage unit operable tostore a plurality of dictionaries to be used for speech recognition thatare created by the dictionary creating unit 103. The dictionaryselecting unit 108 accepts the optimum dictionary selected by a userfrom a plurality of dictionaries. The speech recognition unit 109recognizes a specific word obtained from a speech signal based on user'spronunciations by referring to the dictionary accepted by the dictionaryselecting unit 108. The clock 111 outputs the present date and time tothe control unit 112. The EPG storage unit 110 is a storage unitoperable to store the EPG data.

[0089] The control unit 112 searches the EPG data stored in the EPGstorage unit 110 based on the words recognized by the speech recognitionunit 109 and outputs the information concerning the program. Also, thecontrol unit 112 outputs the information concerning the words recognizedby the speech recognition unit 109 and outputs the speech recognitiondate and time and the like to the recognition word storage unit 105.Further, the control unit 112, at the time when a user viewed a programover the predetermined time, obtains viewing history words that are theinformation concerning the program and outputs the words to the viewinghistory word storage unit 106. Also, the control unit 112 deletes a pastrecognition word that has been stored over the predetermined time fromthe speech recognition date and time in a group of past recognitionwords that are stored in the recognition word storage unit 105.Likewise, the control unit 112 deletes viewing history words that havebeen stored over the predetermined time from the viewing date and timein a group of viewing history words that are stored in the viewinghistory word storage unit 106.

[0090] The operation of the program guidance apparatus formed as shownabove can be divided into the off-line processing for creating adictionary and the on-line processing for recognizing the inputtedspeech with reference to the created dictionary and guiding the program.

[0091] First, the operation of the off-line processing will beexplained. FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the operation of the off-lineprocessing in the program guidance apparatus.

[0092] The EPG receiving unit 101 where a TV signal is inputted extractsthe EPG data from the TV signal and outputs it to the word extractingunit 102 and the EPG storage unit 110 (step S101).

[0093] Next, the word extracting unit 102 extracts “program name”,“cast” and “genre” as new recognition words that become key words forspeech recognition from the EPG data (step S102).

[0094]FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of EPG data. The EPG datafor each program comprises the following classified items: “service ID”for identifying a broadcasting station; “event ID” for identifying eachprogram; “starting date” indicating the year; month and day when theprogram is started; “starting time” indicating what time the program isstarted; “duration” indicating the broadcasting time duration of theprogram; “event name” indicating the program name; and “text” indicatingthe cast and the program contents and “genre” indicating the programgenre.

[0095] Also, fixed words concerning items of “service ID”, “event ID”,“starting date”, “starting time” and “duration time” are previouslystored in the fixed word storage unit 104.

[0096] Next, the dictionary creating unit 103 creates a basicrecognition dictionary using new recognition words inputted from theword extracting unit 102, fixed words stored in the fixed word storageunit 104 and the information concerning pronunciations and parts ofspeech, which are necessary for speech recognition, stored in the fixedword storage unit 104 in the same way of creating a conventionalrecognition dictionary (step S103).

[0097] Next, the dictionary creating unit 103 creates a customizedrecognition dictionary, as shown in FIG. 6 for example, by referring tothe viewing history words inputted from the viewing history word storageunit 106 and the past recognition word inputted from the recognitionword storage unit 105, and in the case where there is any word otherthan the words that have already been registered in the basicrecognition dictionary, by adding the word to the group of words thathave already been registered in the basic recognition dictionary.Further, the dictionary creating unit 103 assigns weights to each keyword depending on the category of the word and which case—the case wherethe word is stored in the recognition word storage unit 105 as a pastrecognition word and the case where the word is stored in the viewinghistory word storage unit 106 as a viewing history word—is employed soas to store a word, and, for example as shown in FIG. 8, creates acustomized recognition dictionary with weights where “item weightcoefficient” and “history weight coefficient” in addition to“characters”, “pronunciation” and “category” are recorded (step S104).

[0098] Next, the dictionary creating unit 103 stores the basicrecognition dictionary, the customized recognition dictionary and thecustomized recognition dictionary with weights that have just beencreated in the dictionary storage unit 107 (step S105). At this time,the dictionary creating unit 103 updates the respective dictionariesthat had been stored earlier in the dictionary storage unit 107 byreplacing those old dictionaries with these newly created onesrespectively.

[0099] Note that the dictionary where “item weight coefficient” and“history weight coefficient” are recorded is created as the customizedrecognition dictionary with weights in this embodiment, but thedictionary is not limited to this. For example, the dictionary may bethe dictionary to which only one of “item weight coefficient” and“history weight coefficient” is added. Also, the values of “item weightcoefficient” and “history weight coefficient” are not limited to thevalues mentioned in the above example, any other values are possible.

[0100] Also, a weight is assigned to the “history weight coefficient”based on the past recognition word and the viewing history words, but itmay be performed based on only one of those. Further, it is alsopossible to add “weight coefficients” of the past recognition word andthe viewing history words to the dictionary. Also, it is possible tochange the “weight coefficient” based on the recognition times, viewingtimes, time or the like.

[0101] Also, a customized recognition dictionary with a similar effectcan be created even in the case of using only one of the viewing historywords or a past recognition word.

[0102] Also, in the case where the hard resources are scarce, forexample, it is possible to delete new recognition words of the genre inwhich a program with a low use frequency is classified instead ofassigning weights.

[0103] Also, at the time when a user searches a program to be broadcastin the future, it is possible not to record words whose category is“program name” providing that no program name is said as shown in FIG.14.

[0104] Also, a customized dictionary with weights can create a pluralityof dictionaries with weights that differs depending on the categories ofwords. Also, it is possible to create a recognition dictionary for eachuser so as to create a plurality of customized recognition dictionariesby inputting a user recognition signal for recognizing a user in thedictionary creating unit 103.

[0105] Here, for example, in the case of creating a customizedrecognition dictionary capable of recognizing a word of “cast”, it ispossible to assign weights by putting a higher priority in speechrecognition to a word of “cast” than to words of “genre” and “program”.

[0106] Also, as to a word of “cast”, it is possible to determine thepriority in speech recognition by referring to the use frequency of theviewing history words and the past recognition word and adapting it touser's taste.

[0107] Also, as to the words, in the viewing history words and the pastrecognition word, that have already been included in the basicrecognition dictionary, as it is highly likely that these words are usedby a user again, it is possible to create a customized recognitiondictionary with weights that is suitable for the user under the usestatus by setting a weight coefficient with a higher priority in speechrecognition to those words.

[0108] Also, the dictionary creating unit 103 creates three recognitiondictionaries of the basic recognition dictionary, the customizedrecognition dictionary and the customized recognition dictionary withweights in this embodiment, but dictionaries are not limited to those.For example, it is also possible to create two recognition dictionariesof the basic recognition dictionary and either the customizedrecognition dictionary or the customized recognition dictionary withweights.

[0109] Also, the operation of the off-line processing for creating adictionary is executed for each predetermined time period, for example,once a day, but this execution time may be determined based on theviewing history.

[0110] Next, the operation of the on-line processing will be explained.FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing the operation of on-line processing inthe program guidance apparatus.

[0111] The dictionary selecting unit 108 displays a plurality ofrecognition dictionaries stored in the dictionary storage unit 107using, for example, a display screen shown in FIG. 12 and accepts therecognition dictionary selected by a user (step S201).

[0112] Next, the dictionary selecting unit 108 outputs the recognitiondictionary selected by the user to the speech recognition unit 109 (stepS202). Note that it is also possible to output the basic recognitiondictionary to the speech recognition unit 109 as the initial setting.

[0113] Here, displaying the category of the recognition dictionaryselected by the user on a part of the TV display screen makes itpossible to help a user to input speech contents based on the contentsof the recognition dictionary.

[0114] Next, the speech recognition unit 109 recognizes the specificwords from the inputted speech by referring to the recognitiondictionary selected by the user (step S203). Here is explained therecognition result in the case where a user says “I want to see sportsprogram.” under the status that the customized recognition dictionarywith weights shown in FIG. 8 is selected by the user. FIG. 13A is adiagram of extract of a customized dictionary with weights shown in FIG.8 and FIG. 13B is a diagram showing an example of a recognition result.The speech recognition unit 109 first calculates a score like generalspeech recognition. Provided that scores are as follows: 500 for “

”, 300 for “

”, 200 for “

”. The speech recognition unit 109 obtains the final score bymultiplying the calculated score, the “item weight coefficient” that isregistered in the customized recognition dictionary with weights by the“history weight coefficient”. As the result, the speech recognition unit109 recognizes “

” as the final recognition result based on the final score.

[0115] Next, the control unit 112 searches a program by referring to thewords recognized in the speech recognition unit 109 (written asrecognition word from here) and the EPG data stored in the EPG storageunit 110 (step S204). In other words, the control unit 112 searches theEPG data stored in the EPG storage unit 110 based on the recognitionwords. After that, the control unit 112 judges whether the recognitionwords are included in the EPG data or not (step S205).

[0116] As the result, in the case where the recognition words areincluded in the EPG data (the answer of the step S205 is YES), thecontrol unit 112 indicates the corresponding program (step S206).

[0117] On the other hand, in the case where no recognition word isincluded in the EPG data (the answer of the step S205 is NO), as nocorresponding program is included in it, the control unit 112 makes aresponse such as “no program where celebrity C appears is beingbroadcast now and will be broadcast within a week” and “movie K is notnow being broadcast” (step S207).

[0118] Here, as the recognition dictionary is created using the userviewing history and recognition history, in the case where the wordsused for speech recognition are included in the recognition dictionarybut is not included in the EPG data, the control unit 112 judges that nospeech recognition error occurred, and which makes it possible to make aresponse on presence/absence of the corresponding program.

[0119] With the above-mentioned structure, it is possible to recognizethe words that are not included in the latest EPG data as the words tobe recognized by creating a recognition dictionary by referring to theEPG data, the user viewing history and speech recognition history,identify a speech recognition error and the presence/absence of thesearch data in the case where a program search is performed and realizea user-friendly speech interface.

[0120] Also, as the recognition dictionary is created by assigningweights to the registered words so as to add an “item weightcoefficient” and a “history weight coefficient” and the like on each ofthem, it is possible to improve the speech recognition rate.

[0121] Further, as a plurality of recognition dictionaries are createdand one of the recognition dictionaries is selected to be used by a userand accepted, a user who thinks that the recognition rate of a speechrecognition unit 109 is low can select the optimum dictionary from aplurality of dictionaries, which makes it possible to improve therecognition rate and realize a user-friendly interface.

Second Embodiment

[0122] The case will be explained in this second embodiment is the casewhere the user who is explained in the first embodiment creates arecognition dictionary for searching a program that has already beenrecorded (or viewed) before in addition to the recognition dictionaryfor searching a program to be broadcast in the future and performs asearch according to the object.

[0123]FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing the structure of the programguidance apparatus including the speech recognition dictionary creationapparatus concerning the second embodiment of the present invention. Asto the same units as the first embodiment, the same reference numbersare assigned to them and detailed explanations on them are omitted.

[0124] This program guidance apparatus includes a program/EPG receivingunit 201, a program/EPG storage unit 202 and a recording informationstorage unit 203 as shown in FIG. 15 instead of the EPG receiving unit101 and the EPG storage unit 110 in the first embodiment of the presentinvention. Also, the operations of the dictionary creating unit 204, thedictionary selecting unit 205 and the control unit 206 differs from theones in the first embodiment.

[0125] The program/EPG receiving unit 201 demultiplexes the EPG data andthe program data from the inputted TV signal. The program/EPG storageunit 202 is a storage unit operable to store the EPG data and theprogram data. The recording information storage unit 203 is a storageunit operable to store the information concerning recorded programs. Forexample as shown in FIG. 16, here are recorded the following data:“characters” indicating the recorded program name; “viewing date andtime” indicating the date and time when the program was recorded; and“category” indicating the program genre and “reservation/storage”indicating which of the user and the system made the reservation forrecording the program. Note that the case where the system makes areservation for recording is, for example, the case where it videotapesall the programs which are selected based on the key words specified bythe user or the like.

[0126] The control unit 206 outputs the information concerning theprogram to be recorded to the recording information storage unit 203.

[0127] The dictionary creating unit 204 creates, as shown in FIG. 17 forexample, the customized recognition dictionary with weights, which iscreated by changing the “item weight coefficient” of the customizedrecognition dictionary with weights that is explained in the firstembodiment based on, for example, the result of searching the speechfrequency shown in FIG. 7, as the recognition dictionary for searching aprogram that has already been recorded (or viewed) before. Here, “itemweight coefficients” are given in the following way: “1.11” to a wordwhose category is “program name” (that has not been viewed yet); “1.30”to a word whose category is “program name” (that has already beenviewed); “1.30” to a word whose category is “date and time”; “1.03” to aword whose category is “broadcasting station/a channel”; “1.49” to aword whose category is “genre” and “1.07” to a word whose category is“cast”. At this time, the dictionary creating unit 204 judges whetherthe program is a program that has not been viewed yet or the program isa program that has already been viewed based on the information of“reservation/storage” stored in the recording information storage unit203. In other words, it judges that the program is the program that hasnot been viewed yet in the case where the system made the reservationfor recording the program, while it judges that the program is theprogram that has already been viewed in the case where the user made thereservation for recording the program.

[0128] The dictionary selecting unit 205 accepts the instruction, from auser, indicating whether the program in search is a program to bebroadcast in the future or the program in search is a program that hasalready been recorded (or viewed), and selects a recognition dictionaryaccording to the program in search. In other words, for example asexplained in FIG. 8 in the first embodiment, a customized recognitiondictionary with higher weights for “genre” of the category is selectedin the case where the program in search is the program to be broadcastin the future, and for example as explained in FIG. 17, a customizedrecognition dictionary with higher weights for “program name” of thecategory is selected in the case where the program in search is theprogram that has already been viewed or recorded before.

[0129] Next, the operation of the on-line processing of the programguidance apparatus formed as shown above will be explained. FIG. 18 is aflow chart showing the operation of the on-line processing in theprogram guidance apparatus. Note that the operation of the off-lineprocessing will be omitted because it is the same as the firstembodiment.

[0130] The dictionary selecting unit 205 accepts the instruction, from auser, indicating whether the program in search is a program to bebroadcast in the future or the program in search is a program that hasalready been viewed or recorded (step S301). Here, a customizedrecognition dictionary with higher weights for “genre” of the categoryis selected as the recognition dictionary that is used in the speechrecognition unit 109 (step S302) in the case where the program in searchis the program to be broadcast in the future. On the other hand, acustomized recognition dictionary with higher weights for “program name”of the category is selected as the recognition dictionary that is usedin the speech recognition unit 109 (step S303) in the case where theprogram in search is the program that has already been viewed orrecorded before.

[0131] The following operations (step S203 to S207) are the same as theembodiment 1.

[0132] As explained up to this point, a plurality of recognitiondictionaries are created and one of the recognition dictionaries isselected for using it in the speech recognition unit 109 depending onwhether the program in search is a program to be broadcast in the futureor the program in search is a program that has already been recorded (orviewed) before, which makes it possible to improve the speechrecognition rate and realize a user-friendly interface.

[0133] In this embodiment, “reservation/storage” indicating that whetherthe user made the reservation for recording the program or the systemmade the reservation for recording the program is recorded as therecording information that is stored in the recording informationstorage unit 203, but information is not limited to this. For example,the following pieces of information may be stored instead: theinformation indicating whether the user made the reservation forrecording the program or the user recorded the program withoutreservation; the information indicating whether the user has alreadyviewed the program or the user has not viewed the program yet; and theinformation indicating whether the user made the reservation forrecording the program using the EPG or the user made the reservation byspecifying the date and time of the program broadcasting or the like.Also, a plurality of these pieces of information may be used.

Third Embodiment

[0134] The third embodiment will explain the case where the recognitiondictionary is partly altered and the words that were registered before apredetermined time period are deleted from all the words that areregistered in the recognition dictionary, while a newly createdrecognition dictionary replaces the old recognition dictionary at thetime of updating in the first embodiment.

[0135]FIG. 19 is a block diagram showing the structure of the programguidance apparatus including the speech recognition dictionary creationapparatus concerning the third embodiment of the present invention. Asto the same units as the first embodiment, the same reference numbersare assigned to them and detailed explanations on them are omitted.

[0136] This program guidance apparatus includes a word deleting unit 301in addition to the structure of the first embodiment as shown in FIG.15. Also, the operations of the dictionary creating unit 303 and thecontrol unit 302 differ from the operations explained in the firstembodiment.

[0137] The dictionary creating unit 303, after creating a basicrecognition dictionary, a customized recognition dictionary and acustomized recognition dictionary with weights like in the firstembodiment, updates the different part in the basic recognitiondictionary, the customized recognition dictionary and the customizedrecognition dictionary with weights that are stored in the dictionarystorage unit 107.

[0138] The word deleting unit 503 deletes the words that have alreadybeen registered before a predetermined time period (such as a week) fromall the words stored in the recognition dictionary by referring to thedate and time of the clock 111, the program descriptions outputted fromthe control unit 112, the past recognition word outputted from therecognition word storage unit 105.

[0139] Next, the operation of the off-line processing of the programguidance apparatus that is formed as shown above will be explained. FIG.20 is a flow chart showing the operation of the on-line processing ofthe program guidance apparatus. The explanation on the operation of theon-line processing is omitted because it is the same as the firstembodiment.

[0140] The EPG receiving unit 101 where a TV signal is inputted extractsthe EPG data from the TV signal and outputs it to the word extractingunit 102 and the EPG storage unit 110 (step S401).

[0141] Next, the word extracting unit 102 extracts “program name”,“cast” and “genre” as the new recognition words that become the keywords for speech recognition from the EPG data (step S402).

[0142] Next, the dictionary creating unit 103 creates a basicrecognition dictionary using the information such as new recognitionwords inputted from the word extracting unit 102, fixed words stored inthe fixed word storage unit 104 and the information concerningpronunciations and parts of speech, which are necessary for speechrecognition, stored in the fixed word storage unit 104 in the same wayof creating a conventional recognition dictionary (step S403).

[0143] Next, the dictionary creating unit 103 creates a customizedrecognition dictionary, as shown in FIG. 6 for example, by referring toviewing history words to be inputted from the viewing history wordstorage unit 106 and a past recognition word to be inputted from therecognition word storage unit 105, and in the case where there is anynew word other than the words that have already been registered in thebasic recognition dictionary, by adding the new words to the basicrecognition dictionary words. Further, the dictionary creating unit 103assigns weights to each key word depending on the category of the wordand which case—the case where each word is stored in the recognitionword storage unit 105 as a past recognition word and the case where eachword is stored in the viewing history word storage unit 106 as a viewinghistory word—is employed so as to store a word, and, for example asshown in FIG. 8, creates a customized recognition dictionary withweights where “item weight coefficient” and “history weight coefficient”in addition to “characters”, “pronunciation” and “category” are recorded(step S404).

[0144] Next, the dictionary creating unit 103 calculates the differencesbetween the recognition dictionaries (a basic dictionary, a customizeddictionary and a customized dictionary with weights) that are stored inthe dictionary storage unit 502, extracts, from the newly createdrecognition dictionaries, the words that are not included in the oldrecognition dictionaries, and then registers these new registrationwords in the dictionary storage unit 107 so as to alter and update theserecognition dictionaries (step S405).

[0145] Next, the word deleting unit 301 deletes the words that havealready been registered before a predetermined time period (such as aweek) with reference to the date and time of the clock 111, the date andtime attached to the words in the recognition words. Note that the timeperiod for the deletion can be set by a user. Further, the time periodfor the deletion of the words included in the customized recognitiondictionary can be longer than that of the words included in the basicdictionary, and also, the words concerning the programs that havealready been viewed in the past can be excluded from the words to bedeleted based on a user viewing history. Further, it is also possible tochange the time period for the deletion depending on the category of theword, the genre or the like.

[0146] In the case where the hardware resources are scarce, for example,the new recognition words of the genre into which programs with a lowuser use frequency are classified may also be deleted instead ofassigning weights.

[0147] Also, it is possible to create a plurality of customizedrecognition dictionaries with different weights depending on thecategory of the words. Also, it is possible to create a viewing historyfor each user so as to create a plurality of customized recognitiondictionaries.

[0148] Also, a customized recognition dictionary with a similar effectcan be created even in the case of using only one of the viewing historywords or a past recognition word.

[0149] Also, the updated date and time is attached to the updated word,and in the case where the same word is included in the old recognitiondictionaries, the update dates and time that are attached to the wordagain.

[0150] With the above-mentioned structure, it is possible to recognizethe words that are not included in the latest EPG data as the words tobe recognized by creating a recognition dictionary by referring to theEPG data, the user viewing history and speech recognition history and byaltering the previously created recognition dictionaries, and it is alsopossible to recognize a speech recognition error and thepresence/absence of the search data in the case where a program searchis performed, and thus it becomes possible to realize a user-friendlyspeech interface.

[0151] Further, as a plurality of recognition dictionaries are createdand one of the recognition dictionaries is selected to be used by a userand accepted, a user who thinks that the recognition rate of a speechrecognition unit 109 is low can select the optimum dictionary from aplurality of dictionaries, which makes it possible to improve therecognition rate and realize a user-friendly interface.

Fourth Embodiment

[0152] The case where music contents is searched will be explained inthe fourth embodiment explains, while the case where a TV broadcastingprogram is searched has already been explained in the embodiments 1 to3.

[0153]FIG. 21 is a block diagram showing the structure of the musicguidance apparatus including the speech recognition dictionary creationapparatus concerning the fourth embodiment of the present invention. Asto the same units as the ones in the first embodiment, the samereference numbers are assigned to them and detailed explanations on themare omitted.

[0154] This music guidance apparatus includes, as shown in FIG. 21, amusic/music information/listening history storage unit 401 instead ofthe EPG receiving unit 101, the viewing history word storage unit 106and the EPG storage unit 110 in the first embodiment. Also, theoperations on the word extracting unit 402, the dictionary creating unit403 and the control unit 404 differ from the operations in the firstembodiment.

[0155] The music/music information/listening history storage unit 401 isa storage unit operable to store the music data, music information andlistening history. For example, as shown in FIG. 22, here are recordedthe following information as the music information: “music title”indicating the title of music; “artist” indicating the player of themusic; “album” indicating the name of the album where the music isincluded; “genre” indicating the genre of the music; and “details”indicating the playing time of the music and the sale date or the like.

[0156] Also, for example, as shown in FIG. 23, here are recorded thefollowing information as the listening history: “music title” of music;“listening time period” indicating the time period when the music hasbeen listened to; “listening times” indicating how many times the musichas been listened to; and “storage source” indicating where the musiccame from to be stored.

[0157] The word extracting unit 402 extractsnew-recognition-words-to-be-recognized which are shown as “music title”,“artist”, “album”, “genre” and the like from the music information.

[0158] The dictionary creating unit 403 creates a basic recognitiondictionary, like in the above-mentioned first embodiment, by addinginformation such as pronunciations and parts of speech that arenecessary for speech recognition to new recognition words extracted bythe word extracting unit 402 and fixed words stored in the fixed wordstorage unit 104. Also, the dictionary creating unit 403 creates acustomized recognition dictionary, by referring to a past recognitionword stored in the recognition word storage unit 105, and in the casewhere there is any new word other than the words that have already beenregistered in the basic recognition dictionary, by adding the new wordsin the basic recognition dictionary as one of the registered words.

[0159] Also, the dictionary creating unit 403 determines the “itemweight coefficients” by assigning weights to key words depending on thecategories of the words such as “music title”, “artist”, “album”,“genre” or the like. At this time, the dictionary creating unit 403determines the “item weight coefficient” by assigning a different weightto each of the categories depending on whether the music has not beenlistened to yet or the music has already been listened to.

[0160] Further, the dictionary creating unit 403 determines the “historyweight coefficient” by assigning a weight to each key word depending onwhether the word is stored in the recognition word storage unit 105 as apast recognition word or not, whether the word is concerning the musicwith a listening history or not, which of the user and the system storedthe music. Also, the dictionary creating unit 403 creates a customizedrecognition dictionary with weights in which “item weight coefficient”and “history weight coefficient” in addition to “characters”,“pronunciation” and “category” are recorded.

[0161] Here, in the case where the music has not been listened to yet,as shown in FIG. 24, “item weight coefficient” are given in thefollowing way: “1.1” to a word whose category is “music title”; “1.2” toa word whose category is “artist”; “1.1” to a word whose category is“album”; and “1.3” to a word whose category is “genre”. On the otherhand, “item weight coefficients” are given in the following way: “1.3”to a word whose category is “music title”; “1.3” to a word whosecategory is “artist”; “1.3” to a word whose category is “album”; and“1.3” to a word whose category is “genre”.

[0162] Also, “history weight coefficients” are given in the followingway: “1.2” to a word stored in the recognition word storage unit 105 asa past recognition word; “1.1” to a word stored concerning the musicwith a listening history and “1.2” to a word concerning the music storedby the user. In the case where the word is classified into severalcategories, history weight coefficients are added to make a new historyweight coefficient, and the new one is assigned to these words.

[0163] Note that explanations on the operations of the on-lineprocessing for creating a dictionary in the music guidance apparatusthat is formed as explained above and the off-line processing forsearching the music by recognizing the speech that is inputted withreference to the created dictionary are omitted because they are thesame as the operations in the first embodiment.

[0164] With the above-mentioned structure, creating a recognitiondictionary by referring to the musing information, the user listeninghistory and the speech recognition history makes it possible torecognize words that are not included in the latest music information asrecognition words, recognize a speech recognition error and thepresence/absence of the search data in the case where a program issearched, and realize a user-friendly speech interface.

[0165] Also, as the recognition dictionary is created by assigningweights to the registered words so as to assign an “item weightcoefficient” and a “history weight coefficient” and the like to each ofthem, it becomes possible to improve the speech recognition rate.

[0166] Further, as a plurality of recognition dictionaries are createdand one of the recognition dictionaries is selected to be used by a userand accepted, a user who thinks that the recognition rate of a speechrecognition unit 109 is low can select the optimum dictionary from aplurality of dictionaries, which makes it possible to improve therecognition rate and realize a user-friendly interface.

[0167] In this embodiment, a weight is assigned to each “history weightcoefficient” depending on whether a key word is stored in therecognition word storage unit 105 as a past recognition word or not,whether the word is concerning the music with a listening history ornot, which of the user and the system stored the music, but a weight maybe assigned to the word depending on only one of these. Also, “weightcoefficient” may be added to a recognition dictionary depending on thecases that are mentioned above. Also, the “weight coefficient” may bechanged depending on recognition times, listening times, time and thelike.

[0168] Also, a program is supposed to be searched without consideringwhether the program has not been viewed yet or whether the program hasalready been viewed, the present invention is not limited to this. Forexample, in the case where a program is searched depending on whetherthe program has not been viewed yet or whether the program has alreadybeen viewed, it is possible to use a different “item weight coefficient”depending on whether the former case is employed or the latter case isemployed.

Fifth Embodiment

[0169] The case where shop (restaurant) data is searched will beexplained in this fifth embodiment, while the case where music contentsis searched has been explained in the fourth embodiment.

[0170]FIG. 25 is a block diagram showing the structure of theinformation search apparatus including the speech recognition dictionarycreation apparatus concerning the fifth embodiment of the presentinvention. As to the same units as the first embodiment, the samereference numbers are assigned to them and detailed explanations on themare omitted.

[0171] This information search apparatus comprises a restaurant datastorage unit 501 and a use information storage unit 504 as shown in FIG.21 instead of the EPG receiving unit 101, the viewing history wordstorage unit 106 and the EPG storage unit 110 in the first embodiment.Also, the operations of the word extracting unit 502, the dictionarycreating unit 503 and the control unit 505 differ from the ones in thefirst embodiment.

[0172] The restaurant data storage unit 501 is a storage unit operableto store the restaurant data. Here, for example as shown in FIG. 26, thefollowing data are recorded: “restaurant name” indicating the name ofthe restaurant; “genre 1” indicating the rough genre of the restaurant;“genre 2” indicating the detailed genre of the restaurant; “main menu”indicating the menu that is served in the restaurant; and “businesshours” indicating the business hours of the restaurant.

[0173] The use information storage unit 504 is a unit operable to storethe use information of the restaurant visited by a user. Here, forexample as shown in FIG. 27, the following data are recorded:“restaurant name”; “using time period” indicating the time period whenthe user has used the restaurant; “using times” indicating how manytimes the user has been used the restaurant; and “using time zone”indicating the time zone when the user has used the restaurant.

[0174] The word extracting unit 502 extracts new recognition words suchas “restaurant name”, “genre 1”, “genre 2”, “main menu” and the likefrom the restaurant data.

[0175] The dictionary creating unit 503 creates a basic recognitiondictionary by adding information such as pronunciations and parts ofspeech that are necessary for speech recognition to new recognitionwords extracted by the word extracting unit 502 and fixed words storedin the fixed word storage unit 104 in the same way as in the firstembodiment. Also, the dictionary creating unit 503 creates a customizedrecognition dictionary by referring to a past recognition word stored inthe recognition word storage unit 105, and in the case where there isany new word other than the words that have already been registered inthe basic recognition dictionary, by adding the new word in the basicrecognition dictionary as one of the registered words.

[0176] Also, the dictionary creating unit 503 determines an “item weightcoefficient” by assigning a weight to each key word depending on thecategory of a word such as “restaurant name”, “genre 1”, “genre 2”,“main menu” or the like. At this time, the dictionary creating unit 503determines the “item weight coefficient” by assigning a different weightto each of the categories depending on whether the user has used therestaurant or not.

[0177] Further, the dictionary creating unit 503 determines a “historyweight coefficient” by assigning a weight to each key word depending onwhether the word is stored in the recognition word storage unit 105 as apast recognition word or not. Also, the dictionary creating unit 503creates a customized recognition dictionary with weights in which “itemweight coefficient” and “history weight coefficient” in addition to“characters”, “pronunciation” and “category” are recorded.

[0178] Here, in the case where the restaurant has not been used yet, asshown in FIG. 28, “item weight coefficient” are given in the followingway: “1.1” to a word whose category is a “restaurant name”; “1.4” to aword whose category is “genre 1”; “1.3” to a word whose category is“genre 2”; and “1.3” to a word whose category is “main menu”.

[0179] On the other hand, in the case where the restaurant has alreadybeen used, “item weight coefficient” are given in the following way:“1.4” to a word whose category is a “restaurant name”; “1.3” to a wordwhose category is a “genre 1”; “1.4” to a word whose category is a“genre 2”; and “1.2” to a word whose category is “main menu”.

[0180] Also, as “history weight coefficients”, “1.5” is given to a wordstored in the recognition word storage unit 105 as a past recognitionword.

[0181] Note that explanations on the operations of the on-lineprocessing for creating a dictionary in the information search apparatusthat is formed as explained above and the off-line processing forsearching the restaurant by recognizing the speech that is inputted withreference to the created dictionaries are omitted because they are thesame as the operations in the first embodiment.

[0182] With the above-mentioned structure, creating recognitiondictionaries with reference to the user use information and the speechrecognition history makes it possible to recognize words that are notincluded in the latest restaurant information as recognition words,recognize a speech recognition error and the presence/absence of thesearch data in the case where a restaurant is searched, and realize auser-friendly speech interface.

[0183] Also, as the recognition dictionaries are created by assigningweights to the registered words so as to assign an “item weightcoefficient” and a “history weight coefficient” and the like to each ofthem, it becomes possible to improve the speech recognition rate.

[0184] Further, as a plurality of recognition dictionaries are createdand one of the recognition dictionaries is selected to be used by a userand accepted, a user who thinks that the recognition rate of a speechrecognition unit 109 is low can select the optimum dictionary from aplurality of dictionaries, which makes it possible to improve therecognition rate and realize a user-friendly interface.

[0185] In this embodiment, a weight is assigned to each “history weightcoefficient” depending on whether the word is stored in the recognitionword storage unit 105 as a past recognition word or not, but it may bechanged depending on recognition times, listening times, use time andthe like.

[0186] Also, a restaurant is supposed to be searched without consideringwhether the restaurant has not been used yet or whether the restauranthas already been used, the present invention is not limited to this. Forexample, in the case where a restaurant is searched depending on whetherthe user has not been used the restaurant yet or whether the user hasalready been used the restaurant, it is possible to use a different“item weight coefficient” depending on whether the former case isemployed or the latter case is employed.

[0187] Industrial Applicability

[0188] As stated above, a speech recognition dictionary creationapparatus and an information search apparatus concerning the presentinvention can create a recognition dictionary whose speech recognitionrate has been improved, it is usable searching pieces of speech signalinformation using, for example, an information search apparatus such asa program guidance apparatus, a music guidance apparatus, a carnavigation system and the like.

What is claimed is:
 1. A speech recognition dictionary creationapparatus for creating recognition dictionaries that are used for speechrecognition, comprising a dictionary creating unit operable to create aplurality of recognition dictionaries with different contents dependingon presence/absence of user experience.
 2. The speech recognitiondictionary creation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein thedictionary creating unit creates the plurality of recognitiondictionaries by registering words in the recognition dictionaries basedon attributes of the words.
 3. The speech recognition dictionarycreation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the presence/absence ofuser experience is concerning presence/absence of viewing, and thedictionary creating unit creates the plurality of recognitiondictionaries based on the presence/absence of the viewing.
 4. The speechrecognition dictionary creation apparatus according to claim 1, whereinthe presence/absence of user experience is concerning presence/absenceof using, and the dictionary creating unit creates the plurality ofrecognition dictionaries based on the presence/absence of the using. 5.The speech recognition dictionary creation apparatus according to claim1, wherein the presence/absence of user experience is concerningpresence/absence of visiting, and the dictionary creating unit createsthe plurality of recognition dictionaries based on the presence/absenceof the visiting.
 6. The speech recognition dictionary creation apparatusaccording to claim 1, further comprising: an action history wordobtaining unit operable to obtain an action history word to berecognized based on an action of a user; an action history word storageunit operable to store the obtained action history word; a fixed wordstorage unit operable to store fixed words to be set previously; a wordextracting unit operable to extract new recognition words to berecognized from inputted data; and a dictionary storage unit operable tostore the plurality of created recognition dictionaries, wherein thedictionary creating unit creates one of the plurality of recognitiondictionaries by selecting new registration words from the newrecognition words, the fixed words and the action history word,registering the new registration words in the recognition dictionary andadding, to the new registration words, information indicatingpronunciations and parts of speech of the new registration words.
 7. Thespeech recognition dictionary creation apparatus according to claim 6,wherein the dictionary creating unit determines, as the new registrationwords, following three kinds of words: the new recognition words; thefixed words; and a word that is not included either in the newrecognition words or in the fixed words and that belongs to the actionhistory word.
 8. The speech recognition dictionary creation apparatusaccording to claim 6, further comprising: a recognition word obtainingunit operable to obtain a past recognition word that was recognized byspeech recognition; and a past recognition word storage unit operable tostore the past recognition word, wherein the dictionary creating unitcreates one of the plurality of recognition dictionaries by selectingnew registration words from the new recognition words, the fixed words,the action history word and the past recognition word, registering thenew registration words in the recognition dictionary and adding, to thenew registration words, information indicating pronunciations and partsof speech of the new registration words.
 9. The speech recognitiondictionary creation apparatus according to claim 6, wherein thedictionary creating unit determines, as the new registration words,following three kinds of words: the new recognition words; the fixedwords; and a word that is not included either in the new recognitionwords or in the fixed words and that belongs both to the action historyword and to the past recognition word.
 10. The speech recognitiondictionary creation apparatus according to one of claim 6 and claim 8,wherein the dictionary creating unit creates the recognition dictionaryby assigning weights to each of the new registration words based onwhether or not the words are included in the action history word andadding, to the new registration words, information concerning theassigned weights.
 11. The speech recognition dictionary creationapparatus according to claim 8, wherein the dictionary creating unitcreates the recognition dictionary by assigning weights to each of thenew registration words based on whether or not the words are included inthe past recognition word and adding, to the new registration words,information concerning the assigned weights.
 12. The speech recognitiondictionary creation apparatus according to claim 8, wherein thedictionary creating unit creates the recognition dictionary by assigningweights to each of the new registration words based on whether or notthe words are included in the action history word and the words areincluded in the past recognition word and adding, to the newregistration words, information concerning the assigned weights.
 13. Thespeech recognition dictionary creation apparatus according to one ofclaim 6 and claim 8, wherein the data to be inputted is structured data,the word extracting unit extracts attributes of the new recognitionwords together with the new recognition words, and the dictionarycreating unit creates the recognition dictionary by assigning weights toeach of the new registration words based on the attributes of the newrecognition words and adding, to the new registration words, informationconcerning the assigned weights.
 14. The speech recognition dictionarycreation apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the dictionarycreating unit creates one of the plurality of recognition dictionarieswith different weights for the new registration words according topurposes, these weights being determined based on attributes of the newrecognition words.
 15. The speech recognition dictionary creationapparatus according to claim 13, further comprising an instructionaccepting unit operable to accept an instruction from the userconcerning use purpose of the recognition dictionary, wherein thedictionary creating unit creates one of the plurality of recognitiondictionaries by assigning weights to each of the new registration wordsbased on the attributes of the new recognition words in response to theinstruction concerning the use purpose that is accepted by theinstruction accepting unit.
 16. The speech recognition dictionarycreation apparatus according to one of claim 6 and claim 8, furthercomprising a user information obtaining unit operable to obtain userrecognition information for identifying the user, wherein the dictionarycreating unit creates the recognition dictionary for each piece of theuser recognition information.
 17. The speech recognition dictionarycreation apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising a userinformation obtaining unit operable to obtain user recognitioninformation for identifying a user, wherein the dictionary creating unitcreates the recognition dictionary by assigning weights to each of thenew registration words for each piece of the user recognitioninformation.
 18. The speech recognition dictionary creation apparatusaccording to claim 6, wherein the action history word obtaining unitrecords action date and time together with the action history word inthe action history word storage unit, the dictionary creating unitcreates the recognition dictionary by further adding the action date andtime to some of new registration words, these new registration wordsbeing selected from the action history word, and the speech recognitiondictionary creation apparatus further comprises a word deleting unitoperable to delete, from the recognition dictionary, the registrationwords which have been stored for a predetermined time period startingfrom the action date and time of the registration words.
 19. The speechrecognition dictionary creation apparatus according to claim 6, furthercomprising an EPG receiving unit operable to demultiplex, from a TVsignal, the EPG data that is an electronic program guide, wherein anaction of the user is the action that the user has viewed a program, theaction history word obtaining unit obtains the action history word inresponse to the action that the user has viewed the program, and theword extracting unit extracts, from the EPG data, the new recognitionwords for each category that is the attribute.
 20. The speechrecognition dictionary creation apparatus according to claim 19, whereinthe dictionary creating unit creates the recognition dictionary byassigning weights to each of the new registration words based on thecategories of the EPG data and adding, to the new registration words,information concerning the assigned weights.
 21. The speech recognitiondictionary creation apparatus according to claim 20, wherein thedictionary creating unit creates a recognition dictionary for programsto be broadcast in future and another recognition dictionary forrecorded programs, the recognition dictionary for programs to bebroadcast having higher weights for the registration words whosecategories are “genre” and lower weights for the registration wordswhose categories are “title” and the recognition dictionary for recordedprograms having higher weights for the registration words whosecategories are “title” and lower weights for the registration wordswhose categories are “genre”.
 22. An information search apparatus forcreating recognition dictionaries that are used for speech recognitionand searching information using a speech signal based on speech of auser, comprising: a dictionary creating unit operable to create aplurality of recognition dictionaries depending with different contentson presence/absence of user experience; a speech recognition unitoperable to recognize a specific word from the speech signal byreferring to one of the recognition dictionaries; a data storage unitoperable to store data to be inputted; and a control unit operable tosearch the data for a word that is recognized by the speech recognitionunit and output corresponding information.
 23. The information searchapparatus according to claim 22, wherein the dictionary creating unitcreates the plurality of recognition dictionaries based on attributes ofwords to be registered in the recognition dictionaries.
 24. Theinformation search apparatus according to claim 22, wherein thepresence/absence of the user experience is concerning presence/absenceof viewing, and the dictionary creating unit creates the plurality ofrecognition dictionaries based on presence/absence of the viewing. 25.The information search apparatus according to claim 22, wherein thepresence/absence of the user experience is concerning presence/absenceof viewing, and the dictionary creating unit creates the plurality ofrecognition dictionaries based on the presence/absence of the viewing.26. The information search apparatus according to claim 22, wherein thepresence/absence of the user experience is concerning presence/absenceof visiting, and the dictionary creating unit creates the plurality ofthe recognition dictionaries based on the presence/absence of thevisiting.
 27. The information search apparatus according to claim 22,further comprising: an action history word obtaining unit operable toobtain an action history word to be recognized based on an action of auser; an action history word storage unit operable to store the obtainedaction history word; a fixed word storage unit operable to store fixedwords to be set previously; a word extracting unit operable to extractnew recognition words to be recognized from data to be inputted; and adictionary storage unit operable to store the created recognitiondictionary, wherein the dictionary creating unit creates the recognitiondictionary by selecting new registration words from the new recognitionwords, the fixed words and the action history word, registering the newregistration words in the recognition dictionary and adding, to the newregistration words, information indicating pronunciations and parts ofspeech of the new registration words.
 28. The information searchapparatus according to claim 27, wherein the data to be inputted isstructured data, the word extracting unit extracts attributes of the newrecognition words together with the new recognition words, and thedictionary creating unit creates the recognition dictionary by assigningweights to each of the new registration words based on the attributes ofthe new recognition words and adding, to the new registration words,information concerning the assigned weights and creates the plurality ofrecognition dictionaries with different weights for the new registrationwords depending on purposes, these weights being determined based onattributes of the new recognition words, the information searchapparatus further comprises a dictionary selection accepting unitoperable to accept a dictionary to be selected by a user from theplurality of recognition dictionaries that are stored in the dictionarystorage unit, wherein the speech recognition unit recognizes a specificword obtained from a speech signal based on speech of a user byreferring to the recognition dictionary accepted by the dictionaryselection accepting unit.
 29. The information search apparatus accordingto claim 27, further comprising an EPG receiving unit operable todemultiplex, from a TV signal, EPG data that is an electronic programguide, wherein the action of the user is the action that the user hasviewed a program, the action history word obtaining unit obtains theaction history word in response to the action that the user has viewedthe program, the word extracting unit extracts, from the EPG data, thenew recognition word for each category that is the attribute, the datastorage unit stores the EPG data, and the control unit outputsinformation concerning corresponding program by searching the EPG datafor the word recognized by the speech recognition unit.
 30. A speechrecognition dictionary creation apparatus for creating recognitiondictionaries that are used for speech recognition, comprising: an actionhistory word obtaining unit operable to obtain an action history word tobe recognized based on actions of a user; an action history word storageunit operable to store the obtained action history word; a fixed wordstorage unit operable to store fixed words to be set previously; a wordextracting unit operable to extract new recognition words to berecognized from data to be inputted; a dictionary creating unit operableto create the recognition dictionary by selecting new registration wordsfrom the new recognition words, the fixed words and the action historyword, registering the new registration words in the recognitiondictionary and adding, to the new registration words, informationindicating pronunciations and parts of speech of the new registrationwords; and a dictionary storage unit operable to store the createdrecognition dictionary.
 31. A speech recognition dictionary creationmethod for creating recognition dictionaries that are used for speechrecognition comprising a dictionary creating step of creating aplurality of recognition dictionaries with different contents dependingon presence/absence of user experience.
 32. An information search methodfor creating recognition dictionaries that are used for speechrecognition and searching information obtained from a speech signalbased on speech of a user, comprising: a dictionary creating step ofcreating a plurality of recognition dictionaries with different contentsdepending on presence/absence of user experience; a speech recognitionstep of recognizing a specific word from the speech signal by referringto the recognition dictionaries; and a control step of searching theinputted data for a word recognized by the speech recognition unit andoutputting corresponding data.
 33. A program for causing a computer toexecute a step of creating recognition dictionaries that are used forspeech recognition, comprising a dictionary creating step of creating aplurality of recognition dictionaries with different contents dependingon presence/absence of user experience.
 34. A program for causing acomputer to execute steps of creating recognition dictionaries that areused for speech recognition and searching information obtained from aspeech signal based on speech of a user, comprising: a dictionarycreating step of creating a plurality of recognition dictionaries withdifferent contents depending on presence/absence of user experience; aspeech recognition step of recognizing a specific word from the speechsignal by referring to one of the recognition dictionaries; and acontrol step of searching the inputted data for words recognized by thespeech recognition unit and outputting corresponding information.